Hancock commissioners begin planning advisory committee to allocate settlement funds

The Hancock County Board of Commissioners on Nov. 18 took initial steps to form a Hancock County Settlement Funds Advisory Committee to oversee distribution of settlement funds.

County administrator (identified in the record as Speaker 3) said the options include a committee that performs application review and recommendation work while leaving final spending decisions to the commission, or granting the committee fuller authority. He offered to serve as an ad hoc administrative liaison to “help this process move along and keep that connection.”

Commissioners discussed whether a commissioner should sit on the committee, whether the commission should retain final decision-making authority, and how members would be selected. Speaker 3 recommended advertising an open application to solicit a broad pool of candidates and using a hybrid approach—targeted outreach to known stakeholders plus public notice. He said conflict-of-interest rules and clear bylaws would be needed, and suggested the committee develop objective scoring criteria for applications before recommendations go to the commission.

Speaker 1 (commissioner) said the commission should retain final authority over expenditures but could rely on committee recommendations. Commissioners asked staff to draft bylaws, a conflict-of-interest component and an application form for review. Speaker 3 said he would return with a draft package and recommendations on membership, mission language and any modest administrative costs to support the committee’s work.

Next steps: staff will draft bylaws, an application, conflict-of-interest language and a recommended structure for the advisory committee and return to the commission for review at a future meeting.